Prince Charles turns 70: Rarely seen images from the future king's life

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November 13, 2018

As he celebrates his 70th birthday on Nov. 14 with a family dinner hosted by his mother, the Queen, at Buckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales has much to be proud of. The longest-serving heir to the throne in history, Prince Charles is also the hardest-working member of the Royal Family, notching up 546 engagements last year along. His charities raise more than $240 million every year, and privately he's a devoted grandpa to Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - with another grandchild due in the spring - plus a step-grandfather to five more, through his wife the Duchess of Cornwall.

To mark his milestone birthday, HELLO! has been granted access to an array of rarely seen images from the Royal Collection. Chosen by the prince as some of his favourites, they include intimate portraits from childhood to present day.

ENTRANCE OF AN HEIR

Few babies in history have entered the world with as much fanfare as Prince Charles Philip Arthur George. The birth of Princess Elizabeth's first child was proclaimed on the gates of Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square's fountains lit up in blue and radio stations across the globe interrupted their programs to break the news of the 7-lb., 6-oz. bouncing baby boy. Here, infant Charles plays with his mother's pearl necklace.

GROWING UP ROYAL

As a child whose parents travelled a great deal (they even lived in Malta for a time while Prince Philip was stationed there as a naval officer), Charles was a sensitive little boy. He was devoted to his nannies, particularly Mabel Anderson, who took care of him at the newly restored Clarence House in London, where his parents moved in 1949.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR

The arrival of a little sister, Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, on Aug. 15, 1950, gave Charles a companion, though he always seemed happiest when in the company of his mother (here, the family in the grounds of the Queen's Scottish retreat, Balmoral Castle, in 1953).

THE CROWD-PLEASER

A rare photo taken at Balmoral in August 1951, six months before George VI died, shows the two-year-old prince thrilled to be the centre of attention with his grandfather the King, his parents Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, his aunt Princess Margaret and his beloved grandmother, then Queen Elizabeth, who doted on Charles, as did the King. He often stayed with them. "Charles is too sweet, stumping around the room," George wrote in a letter to his daughter on one of these occasions. "We shall love having him."

COUNTRY BOY

A happy, carefree moment for eight-year-old Charles as he chases a runaway calf that escaped from its pen on the Balmoral dairy farm. His love of the countryside - a common trait among the royals - is something he speaks of often. "I just happen to love it," he has said.

A NEW LIFE AT THE PALACE

Keeping a lookout on his fourth birthday (Nov. 14, 1952), with his mother the Queen, Charles is now officially heir to the throne after the passing of his grandfather that February: the family had moved out of Clarence House and into the official residence of Buckingham Palace. The prince was thought too young to attend his mother's coronation in June of the following year, but the Queen insisted, and he was able to watch the proceedings from the royal box at Westminster Abbey.

SMOOTH SAILING

Charles may have been more timid than his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, would have liked, but the two (in a speedboat race on the Isle of Wight in 1958) both enjoyed outdoor pursuits, and Charles would go on to serve with the Royal Navy, where his father had been an officer.

FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS

Showing he's a chip off the old (mounting) block, 12-year-old Charles rides with his mother in the grounds of their weekend retreat, Windsor Castle, in May 1961. He would become an accomplished polo player, joking that the sport was "my greatest extravagance." His first polo pony, at 15, was a gift from his father.

PORTRAIT OF A SCHOOLBOY

A portrait of 13-year-old Prince Charles in 1962. By now he was at Gordonstoun, a spartan boarding school in a remote part of Scotland. "I didn't enjoy school as I might have," he would say years later, "but that was only because I'm happier at home than anywhere else."

A SPARE HEIR

The birth of Prince Andrew Albert Christian Edward on Feb. 19, 1960, represented a fresh start for the family, though it literally upstaged 11-year-old Charles, who was, according to biographer Jonathan Dimbleby, starring in a play at Cheam prep school when the principal stepped onstage to announce that the Queen had given birth to a second son.

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING

Captured on camera in his 20th-birthday year by one of the Queen Mother's favourite photographers Cecil Beaton, Charles was by now a student at Cambridge University. He would be publicly invested as Prince of Wales by his mother the following year.

READING MATTER

Going through some papers in his private sitting room at Buckingham Palace in April 1969. Charles was an avid reader who cut his teeth on Shakespeare (he once played Macbeth at school) and was such great friends with renowned author Laurens van der Post that he made him a godfather to Prince William.

EASTER PARADE

After a church service in April 1969, Charles, walking with his beloved grandmother, returns to the Royal Family's Norfolk home, Sandringham. Also pictured are (from L) Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and a five-year-old Prince Edward, who is the Queen and Philip's youngest child, holding his mother's hand.

HIGHER EDUCATION

At Trinity College, Cambridge (here in 1969), the prince studied anthropology, archeology and history. He broke royal precedent by living on campus and leading, as much as possible, the life of any other undergraduate. Of course, his bodyguard had his own room and the Queen herself inspected the rooms before giving her approval. Charles reportedly had his own phone and a security closet for mail, while his bodyguard took care of his laundry in case it was tampered with.

TAKING FLIGHT

Following family tradition, the prince served in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy - though he preferred to be airborne rather than at sea. By now dubbed "the action-man prince" by the British press, Charles takes off for a helicopter training flight at the Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton in 1972.

FAN FEVER

In 1975, long before the invention of the selfie, schoolboy fans whip out their Instamatic cameras to snap the Prince of Wales en route to receiving the Order of the Bath, a mark of chivalry dating back to 1725. Today, Charles is great master of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, presiding over an installation ceremony every four years. (The moustache, on the other hand, only appears once in a lifetime!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY

The Queen's annual birthday parade, Trooping the Colour, is a magnificent spectacle, made all the more enticing by the fact that members of the Royal Family appear on horseback. Here, Charles, wearing the traditional bearskin hat of the Queen's Guard, saddles up in 1977 - his mother's Silver Jubilee year.

LEAP OF FAITH

Charles in 1978 after spending the day skydiving with the Parachute Regiment - an elite division of the British Army. He was made colonel-in-chief in 1977 and insisted on taking the same training as everyone else. "You started by having to jump out of a creaking basket suspended below a balloon. This was particularly testing on the nerves as it was like jumping deliberately out of a doorway at the top of an 800-foot building"

BROTHERLY LOVE

A 30-year-old Charles shares a joke with younger brothers Prince Andrew, 19, and Prince Edward, 15, on holiday at Balmoral in 1979 - two years before Charles would marry his first wife, Lady Diana Spencer. Andrew would go on to become a Navy officer, while Edward, who shared Charles' artistic leanings, at one point worked with musical theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber.

THE DAREDEVIL BACHELOR

Kitted out like Biggles - the fictional pilot hero of a vintage adventure book series - the dashing 30-year-old prince poses at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, where he fulfilled his ambition to fly a pre-war Tiger Mother biplane. Flying is a passion that has stayed with him for life. Speaking with armed forces families on a tour of Canada in 2012, the prince proudly described himself as "the father of two serving sons in the armed forces, who seem to have become hereditary helicopter pilots."

MAGICAL MEMORIES

The Queen Mother posed with four of her loving grandchildren. Prince Charles has the fondest memories of his grandmother. "Oh, how I shall miss her laugh and wonderful wisdom," he said after her death at age 101. "She was quite simply the most magical grandmother you could possibly have, an dI was utterly devoted to her."

A DOTING DADDY

Playing with an almost two-year-old Prince William in the grounds of Kensington Palace in June 1984, Charles was a natural father - even if the experience did catch him slightly off-guard. "The arrival of our small son has been an astonishing experience and one that has meant more to me than I could have ever imagined," he wrote to a friend. William's little brother, Prince Henry (a.k.a. Harry), would arrive in September of that year.

COLD FRONT

Boys will be boys! At Klosters, a favourite Swiss ski resort of the royals, Prince Charles hitches a toboggan ride with his 12-year-old son Harry in January 1997. Already a hands-on parent who loved to spend time outdoors with his sons, Charles would embrace the role even more fully after Diana's death later that year.

LAY OF THE LAND

Farming and conservation is all-important to the Prince of Wales, and he's hoping to pass along that passion to his children and grandchildren. Here, a 21-year-old Prince William accompanies his dad at the Home Farm on the Duchy of Cornwall private estate which, at Charles's urging, adopted a completely organic farming system almost 30 years ago. Today, it's touted as "a flagship for the benefits of an organic, sustainable form of agriculture."

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

In 2008, Prince Charles had the pleasure of presenting William with his wings at his son's RAF graduation ceremony. (His future daughter-in-law Kate Middleton was also present.) "Prince William, who has spent the last four months on attachment to the RAF, has learned to fly both Tucanos and Squirrel helicopters, during an intensive training program," the palace said in a statement.

SERVING QUEEN AND COUNTRY

DECORATED LIKE DAD

Both decorated with their military medals, father and son visit the Nek, a ridge in Turkey's Gallipoli Peninsula, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. The 2015 visit came shortly before Harry retired from the British Army after 10 years of service. Though no longer serving, in 2017 he succeeded his grandfather Prince Philip as captain general of the Royal Marines. Charles, meanwhile, holds numerous military designations including admiral of the fleet, field marshal and marshal of the Royal Air Force.

DOING GOOD

The passionate preservationist in front of the stunning fountain at Dumfries House in Scotland, an 18th-century mansion that the Prince of Wales helped to save from sale (including the British Rococo furniture inside ) in 2007. In honour of his 70th birthday, the Prince's Foundation (which Charles created in 1986) announced it is seeking seven similar sites to preserve a la Dumfries House. The project is nicknamed "7 for 70." It is just one of many causes close to the prince's heart, including reversing climate change.

TEN BLISSFUL YEARS

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on a stroll near their Scottish country home, in a photo released to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in 2015. Bundled up against the cold, the prince looks lovingly at his wife, who stands smiling beside him at Birkhall on the Queen's Balmoral estate - where they also spent their honeymoon and first wedding anniversary.

SO HAPPY TOGETHER

AN ELEGANT ARRIVAL

With waves from their horse-drawn carriage, Charles and Camilla arrive to one of the most glamorous dates in the horse racing calendar - Royal Ascot - this past June. Camilla is elegant in a pale-yellow coat and wide-brimmed hat, while the Prince of Wales is dapper in a grey suit, pink tie and, of course, top hat - as per Ascot tradition.